Maison Bonnet’s Exclusive Eyewear

By

MICHAEL MAGERS

Dec. 10, 2018 9:00 am ET

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Frames are designed based on a client’s facial structure.
Photograph by Michael Magers

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Icons of style have always been identified as much by their accessories as their overall aesthetic. Take, for example, the signature eyeglasses of designer Yves Saint-Laurent, former First Lady Jackie Onassis, or actress Audrey Hepburn—they serve as nuanced punctuation, with just enough boldness to make a statement without eclipsing the famous face behind the frames.

As it happens, these luminaries share a common bond: Their glasses were handcrafted and custom-fit by a little-known Parisian eyewear boutique called Maison Bonnet.

Maison Bonnet’s humble beginnings trace back to 1930 and the work of Alfred Bonnet, a spectacle craftsman in the Jura Mountains, located along the French/Swiss border. The family business was officially founded by his son Robert in 1950, and since 2009 the shop has operated out of a small atelier in the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris.

Today, the small, family-run company carries on a four-generation tradition of designing and handcrafting some of the most sought after custom eyewear in the world. In 2000, the French government awarded Christian Bonnet, the current patriarch, with the title Maître d’art, a designation awarded for life to only one artistic master in a respective discipline at a time.

Christian’s sons, Franck and Steven, run daily operations, working alongside young apprentices who together are keeping alive a rare set of skills in an increasingly mass-produced world.

The team works with an assortment of materials, ranging from traditional acetate and buffalo horn to rare tortoise shell, which was acquired before the material was banned in 1973. In the eyewear world, real tortoise shell is the rarest of the rare. Made of keratin (the same material as human hair or nails), it’s light, strong, and very comfortable. In fact, when famed architect Le Corbusier designed his own look-defining eyewear, it was initially too uncomfortable when made from plastic. He specifically sought out Robert Bonnet for his expertise in working with tortoise shell, and a signature style was born.

In Frame

1950

Maison Bonnet is officially founded.

$1,775 The Starting cost of frames today.

Nine months

The time it takes to finish tortoise shell frames.

Maison Bonnet strives to incorporate a client’s personality into the glasses, both in terms of how they see themselves and how they would like to be seen by the outside world.

Franck Bonnet desscribes his job is much like a frame maker for great works of art. “You have a Picasso, for example, a really nice painting, and you need a frame to put the painting inside, but the work of the frame maker is to be humble—the star is the painting,” he says. “You announce what is beautiful. You have to forget about the frame and just see the painting.”

The process includes choosing a general design based on facial structure, followed by a precise measuring and mapping of each client’s face, right down to the length of the eyelashes. Once the frames are made, clients will return for at least one fitting, often more, during which the glasses are adjusted—filed, heated, and shaped—until they fit perfectly.

Depending on the composition, it can take up to nine months before the final product is ready to wear (less for acetate and buffalo horn). Prices vary greatly depending on the material, but frames start at 1,350 pounds sterling (US$1,775).

Joseph Dirand, French architect and Maison Bonnet client, says that it’s Maison Bonnet’s unique combination of “the refined aesthetics of their glasses and the handmade craftsmanship” that he loves most about the brand.

Steven Bonnet, who handles much of the design work, sums up Maison Bonnet’s philosophy as simply, “One piece for one person.”

Maison Bonnet’s Exclusive Eyewear

Icons of style have always been identified as much by their accessories as their overall aesthetic.

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